"I must hand it to you, Revali; it takes a particularly awful divine being to impose something of such little consequence as a curfew," Urbosa charged, her frustrations having already bubbled over as the Champions strode down the many bridges that offered those bound to the soil a pathway to the highest reaches of the Rito's village, their gait matching the speed with which the sun began to fall behind the mountains to the West, "Having said that, well done outsmarting that same divine being."

Shrugging, Revali clarified simply, "Our god, Witwa, would find pleasure in our resourcefulness, I assure you. It's hardly, as you have so distasteful put it, outsmarting him."

"Oh, so we can't be in the village beyond the hour of the setting sun, but we're granted an audience two steps beyond the reach of your village? That's not outsmarting?" Urbosa challenged.

Revali's head fell to the side inquisitively, "I see not what the problem is. Witwa is of perfect intellect and of impeccable wit; had he foreseen our initiative, he would have ensured his displeasure of such things."

"Sounds to me," Daruk opined with a happy chortle, "As though your people simply want access to outside delights even as the moon reaches the sky! Say, for example, the foods of Hyrule Kingdom! I must admit, I, too, have been haunted by the scrumptious thought of consuming pale custard in the midnight hour, even back home."

Mipha's eyes narrowed in time with a devilish grin as she teased, "You say 'admit' as though that's some sort of confession when we probably all could have inferred such from our Goron companion."

"Ah, well," Daruk nervously chuckled, stroking his white beard.

Shrugging his shoulders, Link noted plainly, "You make it sound like such a rigorous rule when the merchants down here seem to be having a rather lucrative time just beyond your village's borders."

"I beg your pardon," Revali scolded, "It takes a certain strength, an indomitable spirit, to be so privileged to call one's self a merchant who caters to the Rito! Our rupees are proudly earned, and are not easily squandered merely on blasted trinkets, nor do we reward the more scrupulous of merchants with them."

"Look!" Zelda exclaimed, the Champions arriving near enough to the final bridge leading them back to the mainland for Zelda to spot one of the merchant tents, "Books! Near the sleeping vendor there!"

Revali bit his lip as Urbosa nodded, "Quite indomitable, yes."

The Rito huffed, fluttering his feathers in proudly resolution, "It takes a hardened spirit to sleep amidst our kind, particularly for a Hylian."

"Certainly," Link replied in a smarmy tone, rolling his eyes at just easy it had become for him to humor the man.

Zelda broke from the collection of Champions as she approached the lone vendor, a scraggly looking Hylian man of middle age, though the years of rigors painted upon even his sleeping face left many with the impression that he was much older. He pasted himself seated atop a rough hewn rug which also housed his ware, the purple fabric once having been ornate enough to, perhaps, once have been used for its intended purpose in showcasing the trinkets along its length, though it had now collected the same wear and tear that most career merchants often reveled in.

"Look!" Zelda piped up excitedly, immediately falling to her knees to pour over the assortment of tomes, her attention all but withheld from the sleeping merchant not a few feet away, "Hmm… Read it. Read it. Read- No, no, I read it…"

"Truly a lady of the people," Urbosa noted with a sarcastic smirk.

Daruk ran a hand along the top of his head, frowning, "She was doing so well, too."

"Well, that childish inability will serve her well in time," Urbosa smiled, now sincerely, as she patted Zelda's head, crouching down to examine the merchant's wares herself, picking up a misshapen object resembling a cast-iron skillet, though one that had been twisted under extreme heat into an oblong platter, though with a few edges still turned skyward, "This merchant seems more like a junk trader…"

Revali scoffed, "Junk… That's an earthen aerie salver, you uncultured dolt. and a rather well-kept one at that. Have you any idea how many rupees such a thing will fetch?"

"Probably two, in the bazaar, anyway," Urbosa grumbled as she returned the foreign object, much to Revali's displeasure, "Hey Mipha, check this out! Looks like some of the jewelry you wear."

Mipha bent low beside her, massaging her chin as she examined the jewelry herself, "You're not wrong. They're not Zoran- See? The gemstones have the slightest cracks along the divots, almost as if forced in with inadequate tools."

"Pah! You expect the lesser of us Rito to be able to afford Zoran jewelry at the exorbitant prices charged? The replicas have just as much luster; they've become quite fashionable amongst our more cosmopolitan individuals. This merchant has obviously traded with us before; he knows how to catch the eyes of us Rito."

Revali narrowed his eyes, trying to recognize the man from memory, though simply shrugging as Mipha inquired with interest, "It seems rather odd for Rito to admire the jewelry of, uh, land-dwellers."

"Don't deprave yourself," Revali shrugged, "Are you not largely waterborne?"

Mipha peered blankly at how plain such an answer was, even if it appeared laced with a certain simplicity that betrayed most reason.

"I would like to inquire from this Hylian how he came to be so knowledgeable of my culture, when I've been saddled with one of his Kingdom who seems so dense in comparison," Revali spoke up in listless critique, causing Link to roll his eyes as Revali waved his hand in front of the merchant's face, "Hey! Wake up, you oaf!"

Urbosa winced, "Dude, it's called pillow talk for a reason."

"A fine alteration of the barbaric action of stuffing Rito feathers into your clothen sacks for mere comfort," Revali charged evenly, poking the man's rough cheek, "Traveling merchant! I implore you to-!"

"Gheh," came a hollow cough as the merchant brought himself into the world of the living, wheezing as his lungs convulsed in wild spasm, "KEHEHEHH-!"

He turned away to cover his dry mouth, waving toward his guests dismissively as Mipha worried, "Are you alright, sir?!"

Even Zelda's attention was won over, the Hylian princess whipping her head up with a wary glance, the old man muttering in between hacking breaths, "Ghe heeeh, that smarts. Really gets you in the ol' ticker, huh? Oh!"

Without preamble, the merchant immediately contorted in his seated position, whipping around back and forth as cracking bursts of rattling bones escaped past his joints, "A Rito amongst this odd assortment! I trust my wares will catch yer eye! Look here! An aerie salver!"

The old man's craggy hand grabbed the cast iron skillet to present to Revali, leaving the others in awe.

"Goddess…" Daruk muttered in awe.

Revali smirked, crossing his arms in triumph before clearing his throat, readying his bravado, "My good traveler, I have no need for your vessel of iron. I'd much rather find out if you happen to have come across any gloogensprocks on your way?"

"Gloogensprocks? But of course!" the merry old man cajoled happily, reaching into his pockets as Revali turned toward his companions with a wry sort of smirk.

"Perhaps I'm not the impish little fool, after all, that you all took me for," he sneered in something of a wiry show of pride.

Urbosa shrugged, "Now, we never said 'fool'. nor 'impish', for that matter."

"No matter," Revali mused with braggadocios flair, taking the handful of items from the merchant's hovering grasp, "We Rito pride ourselves on forgiveness, and specifically on recognizing that the future of the collective goodness is best when past foibles are cast aside."

"Just now?" Link goaded with a wry smirk, though Revali ignored him.

The Rito's Champion held out his hand, first toward Daruk, before dropping a small pebble-like object into his awaiting hand, moving along as Daruk marveled, "Oh! A treat!"

"Yes, indeed! Gloogensprocks are a prized delicacy amongst my people! In honor of seeing this journey unto its completion, so long as this good merchant has them on hand, I ought to offer the same welcome that-"

Revali paused, eying the collection of Champions fir a brief moment before admitting, "Well, the welcome offered by Mipha's, uh-"

He brought a finger back to his lips in thought, "On the other hand…"

Mipha smiled sweetly as she accepted the squishy ball of a delicacy, "Don't worry. You should take some measure of pride that your home was the first along this journey where we discovered nothing in the way of trouble."

"Indeed!" Zelda agreed, yanking her attention away from the books only fir the promise of sweets, "We've been accosted, divided, nearly killed- This is the most welcome we've been in quite some time."

Revali huffed up proudly as he pulled his hand up toward his beak, readying his own bite of gloogensprock as the others followed suit, "Well, I agree that my home can be rather icy at times in the way of reception, but for a group such as this one…"

His eyes trailed off, lips sneering distastefully beneath his beak, Revali allowed Zelda to take attention from his surreptitious motion, the Hylian princess only smiling as she bowed her head in reverence.

"So… to friends?"

Mipha smiled, "To friends."

"To friends!" Daruk roared.

Urbosa was the next to utter a reply, though her speech caught her gently stroking the tender blue fabric that had been spun into a band and tied around her torso. The fabric crafted by a princess. The only thing that made them Champions.

"To family," she grinned wistfully, eying the others, "We've been to hell and back, but we're still here. together. And I'll be damned were I to partake in the same journey a second time without the lot of you."

She rolled her eyes, noticing Zelda and Daruk's tender glares toward her, forcing her to smile, "Yeah, yeah, call me a mother, I don't care. Better than the Goron Grandpa over here."

"Hey, I resent that!" Daruk retorted, albeit happily, pausing to correct himself, "Wait, that's not what that means. I accept that! Gives me some leeway with my jokes- that, and I cannot wait to forcibly compel the youngest amongst us to sit still while I regale!"

The group broke into scattered laughs and giggles while Link glanced into the tiny offering in his hand, wondering, of ever, Revali had ever felt compelled to offer much of anything to another being. much less a Hylian. much less him. He felt eyes upon him, perhaps curious as to his next words, his own pair slowly running up toward the other Champions.

They hadn't started out this way. He'd been the outcast, brought into the fold by little more than the Sword nestled against his back. Yet that fact kept none of them from treating him as though he'd been there, through and through, from the start- save fir Revali, anyway. Even then, here was the feathered man making an effort, such an act Link hadn't ever thought possible.

Then his eyes found Mipha. Her eyes sunken behind her crimson crown, flashing with as much radiance as the first moment he had ever caught sight of her. She'd met his glance with a smile, so purely sweet and with an entire world, with them together, held among its beauty. He had found friendship on this journey. He had found love, and even the excruciating depths of hearthbreak that made up its inverse. He had found his destiny, not simply as the bearer of the Master Sword, but as the bearer of the one heart in all of Hyrule he so desperately prized amongst all others.

Why could he not also have found…

"To family," he sounded quietly, turning his head to hide whatever blush must have been crossing his face.

Zelda smiled with a relish most often reserved fir her most treasured tomes, though she fought the urge with a declaration of her own, "To family!"

"Here here!" Daruk proclaimed raising his hand as the others followed suit, some more languidly than others, before the Company downed the odd tasting morsel.

Mipha's eyes winced at the suddenly-viscous texture that expanded throughout her mouth, like a gummy substance that refused to submit to her teeth's biting pressure, instead clinging to her gums, nearly fighting to stay unmasticated. Link's lips pursed in dismay while even Zelda visibility shook at the sudden, wholly unwelcoming makeup of the gloogensprock, turning to Urbosa for help with tear-strewn eyes.

"Not bad," Urbosa shrugged.

"Indeed! Were I to have taste buds, I'm sure I would relish in such a treat!" Daruk chimed with enthusiasm .

Revali nodded with haughty insight, "Such a delicacy is prized amongst my people for a reason, you should understand, by now."

"GEHEH- Yes, indeed!" broke in the merchant, "Y'know, with the path down south stricken from my route, it's little more than my desire to see these lands that compelled me to take the northern passage through the snowplains of Hebra to get here. Not the easiest paths to trace, y'know."

Link's eyes wandered over toward the merchant, warily eying him with presumption as Revali remained unfettered, "Well, it certainly speaks to your dedication, my good man! Such a trek mustn't be seen as anything but tumultuous for a land-dweller such as yourself."

"GEHEH-" the merchant coughed, nearly hacking up a lung as he smiled brightly, "I'm happy you think so, too!"

He dropped a mighty satchel, so overfull of rupees, that slammed onto his rug with a huge *CLUNKSHHH*.

"Five gloogensprocks'll cost ya eighteen rupees."

Revali nodded, "Ah, yes! I forgot to line your coffers, first! I'll just get my eighteen ru-"

"Eighteen hundred rupees," the merchant muttered seriously, only before grinning, "My good man!"

"CAW! What manner of-?! Why did you not stop us?!"

The merchant shrugged, "I hated to interrupt the moment."

Revali sneered in utter annoyance before digging into the satchel slung across his shoulder, eying the worrisome vendor the entire time, perhaps hoping his stare might be doing them harm.