Morning spear practice between Mipha and Revali very quickly became a routine event. If nothing else, it seemed to leave the Rito too tired to pick much of a fight with anyone for the rest of the morning.

Revali also spent an increasing amount of time flying overhead. Urbosa wondered if he would have spent any time walking with them at all if he had not been so exhausted; he was obviously still getting very little sleep, if any at all. The Gerudo wondered how long he could keep going like this, but was still at a loss as to how to help.

It had nearly been a week since whatever had happened between him and his fellow Rito, and he had stubbornly refused to broach the subject since that first, late night talk. For once Revali seemed fully capable of outlasting anyone who tried to talk to him.

By afternoon his agitation had usually returned full force. Nobody tried to talk to him after that. In fact, nobody tried to talk at all. They trudged on in silence for the most part, resorting to little more than hushed conversation even while the Rito flew above them.

They should have been relieved to reach the stable and its accompanying inn, but Urbosa instead found herself wondering how long it would take for someone to say the wrong thing and set the Rito off.

At this point, all anyone likely had to do was make eye contact.

A small, fast moving object nearly slammed into Revali's legs without warning; the Gerudo was certain it was over as the Rito neatly stepped out of the way at the last minute only to turn and scoop up what turned out to be a small Hylian child. At a guess Urbosa figured the little boy to be about three or four years old.

Revali frowned as he lifted the boy, green eyes narrowed. The child, for his part, stared back at the Rito with wide eyes, panting and out of breath, but hardly afraid. Urbosa felt only slightly guilty for having to hope that Revali would do nothing to change that, and that the boy would stay unafraid.

"Bird." The Hylian child reached out and rested several tiny fingers on Revali's beak. Urbosa's fellow Champion considered him a long moment, then let out a long sigh, his shoulders dropping as he did so.

"Rito," Revali corrected, his tone surprisingly mild. It still held an undercurrent of tension, but there was no actual anger directed at the child who had nearly bowled him over.

The boy stared at him with wide eyes. "You can talk?" he asked in an awed near-whisper.

Revali rolled his eyes. "Of course I can talk," he said. "All Rito can talk, fledgling."

The boy screwed up his face in confusion. "Fledging?" he repeated.

"Fledgling," The Rito repeated, not quite amused. "A fledgling is a bird who can't fly yet. They aren't old enough to go off on their own." He considered the Hylian child in his arms. "Though unless I'm greatly mistaken, you're actually not much more than a nestling-a baby."

"I'm not a baby," the boy insisted, indignation flashing across his face. "I'm four years old." He held up four fingers as if to lend credence to his claim.

"So you are. Not a nestling at all." Revali conceded. "And where were you headed, in such a hurry that you couldn't bother to watch where you were going?" he asked.

"Looking for Tania."

"Tania?"

"My sister." The child scowled. "She doesn't want to play with me. But Mama says she has to."

"I see," Revali considered the Hylian still in his arms. "And Tania is somewhere around here, I hope?"

The boy pointed. Not too far away, partially hidden by a bush, a young girl watched her brother uncertainly. Revali offered a small half-wave, then set the child down.

"Off you go, then," he said. He watched as the young Hylian ran to his sister. Soon the two were whispering madly, both shooting glances at the Rito as they talked. Revali turned his attention away from them, focusing once more on Urbosa. "Are we just going to stand here all day, or are we going inside?" he asked, as if he had not just been the sole reason for their delay. Urbosa forced herself to shrug his words off.

"Sure," she said, leading the way forward.

They managed to rent out a couple of rooms without incident. Revali muttered for her not to bother for him, reminding her that he had a hammock. The Gerudo took that to mean he intended to sleep outside and planned accordingly, and by the time they had finished making arrangements the Rito had vanished.

They had arrived just in time for dinner, though nobody other than Link did much more than pick at their food. The meal itself was a silent, somber affair riddled with tension. Afterwards the group dispersed for the evening.

Urbosa found herself outside with Daruk, who also intended to sleep outside. They sat in amiable silence, though each could not help but worry about their feathered companion, and tried to enjoy the last bit of the day's sun as the evening wore on.

Four or five children ran about, playing; Urbosa watched them idly, but with little real interest. She did note that both the boy from earlier and his sister seemed to be a part of the group.

They stopped and stared as Revali made an appearance, landing not entirely gracefully halfway between them and his fellow Champions. In an instant the children had him surrounded, running around him in a circle while chanting, "Rito! Rito! Rito!"

Revali rolled his shoulders and shook his head, but forced a laugh as he darted forward as if to grab one of them. This caused the chanting to devolve into delighted shrieks and giggles, and the children scattered in different directions.

If they hoped he would give chase, they were disappointed. Instead Revali shook his head once more and turned to make his way toward his companions. One of the children called to him and he turned and waved before continuing.

The children watched him for a moment before going back to chasing each other around, still giggling and laughing as they ran.

Abruptly Revali stopped, turning to watch two of the children as they stopped beneath a tree. His eyes narrowed and he stalked over, annoyance slipping at long last through his up until now mild expression. Lunging, he caught a boy's arm as it swung in the air.

Urbosa had gotten to her feet and crossed the distance between them before she even made the conscious decision to move. She did not think Revali would hurt the child, however...

She reached them as Revali took something from the boy's hand and released him. Turning, the Rito gestured for the other child to give up whatever he had as well. This boy, slightly older than his friend, stared up at Revali for a long moment before reluctantly handing over his treasure.

Revali noticed Urbosa then, and offered an open palm to her. In his hand rested a handful of small stones. The Gerudo stared at them for a moment without understanding, and Revali turned back to the tree.

He whistled, and immediately received a response from more than one bird. Then he turned to regard the Hylian children solemnly.

"Have you ever been hit by a rock?" he asked, not quite pleasantly, but without the underlying anger that had become normal for him over the past week. He stared down at the boys, waiting for an answer. When he received none, he sank abruptly to a sitting position, putting him almost at eye level.

"Stones hurt," he told them, his tone serious. "Come here." When they hesitated, he tossed the pebbles carelessly away and reached out to each child. "I'm not going to hurt you," he scolded. Catching them each by a hand, he drew them closer. "If you're lucky, they leave a bruise. Sometimes they cut the skin and it bleeds. If the rock is big enough, and the bird is small enough, you can break bones, and a bird that can't fly can't survive because they can't find food or shelter. They can't fly away when danger comes. Do you understand?"

Both boys stared up at him with wide eyes as if under some sort of spell. After a moment, they nodded.

"Good," Revali released them both, satisfied. "Now go and play."

Rito and Gerudo watched them go. When Revali made no attempt to stand, Urbosa settled on the grass beside him.

"Do you have children?" she asked, though she was fairly certain of the answer. He did not seem old enough, and his lifestyle before joining them, as she understood it, would not have been conducive to raising a family.

Still watching the Hylian children at play, Revali shook his head.

"Any plans?" Another no. "Why not? You seem to like them. And they seem to like you."

Revali scowled. "I've seen the damage an adult can do with just a few careless words," he grumbled. Shifting, he added, "And anyway, fledglings are important. It's everyone's responsibility to make sure they not only grow up, but grow up well."

"A carryover from wilder times?" Urbosa guessed, curious. She realized she had missed these sorts of conversation with him. Revali nodded.

"It was a harsher, more savage world," he explained. "Everyone banded together to survive. Everybody huddled together when the nights got cold. Everyone kept an eye on the fledglings, as much as they could."

"And now?" Urbosa wondered. "You said you knew firsthand how easy it was to hurt a child with just a few careless words. Did you hurt someone, or were you the one hurt?" She regretted the question instantly. Revali turned away, closing himself off, bit did not leave.

"So did you also have to learn firsthand not to throw stones, or is that just something Rito are born knowing?" Urbosa changed the subject slightly, hoping it would be enough not to drive him away.

"Hatched," he corrected, settling just a bit. Urbosa raised an eyebrow.

"Did you just say-"

"Hatched," Revali confirmed. "As in, the female Rito lays an egg, and then she and the male keep it warm until it hatches, revealing a very ugly, very helpless Rito chick." Urbosa considered it a victory that he did not appear overly annoyed by the conversation. "Eventually a layer of down feathers grow in. After that they start to get more an more independent. When their flight feathers grow in, the parents start teaching them to fly. A Rito is considered a full grown adult after completing their first solo flight."

"And then they find a mate, settle down and repeat the process?" Urbosa asked. She received a nod in reply. "So you don't have children. Do you have a partner?" She was not overly surprised when he shook his head. "Anyone special?"

"No."

"Anyone you're interested in?"

"No." Revali shifted impatiently. Urbosa decided it was time to change the subject.

"So Rito don't throw stones, then." She started to lean back, then realized her companion had looked away. "Or do they? Did your parents have to teach you that stones hurt?" She frowned.

"I threw a rock at somebody," he admitted, forcing himself to relax. "Fortunately it missed. I felt bad anyway, but I've never been very good at controlling my temper. He threw it first, though. To be fair I don't think he meant to do more than frighten me." The Rito looked thoughtful. "I used to startle pretty easily. But he panicked when it drew blood; he was already running before I threw it back." Revali shrugged as if the revelation meant nothing.

Urbosa felt one eyebrow raise of its own accord. "He hit you with a rock hard enough to draw blood?"

Another shrug, this one not quite so easy. "It had a sharp edge and hit just right. He stopped throwing stones after that, at least. It did leave a scar, though." Almost absently he raised a hand to his temple.

Urbosa tilted her head slightly to study him. "If it did, you can't see it under all those feathers," she pointed out, hoping that teasing him about this, at least, was not the wrong decision.

Revali snorted, then reached out to her. She hesitated a moment, then let him take her hand, dark blue feathers closing over copper skin. Guiding her, he brought her fingers to rest against his temple.

"You should be able to feel the imperfection where the feathers don't lay exactly right," he told her. "It's small, but definitely there. The scar is right underneath. You should be able to feel that too."

Urbosa frowned, then gasped as his explanation suddenly made sense. Finding the scar beneath the feathers, she realized that although it was small, the cut had originally been deep. "One of your friends did this to you?" she asked. "Were you playing, or-"

"I've already told you," Revali told her impatiently. "He wasn't my friend then, and he's not my friend now. He thought it was funny to throw stones at me and watch me yell." The all-too familiar anger flared up again, but the Rito seemed reluctant to move while his feathers were still between Urbosa's fingers.

"Ilari?" Urbosa guessed. He seemed to have been the ringleader that day.

"Yeah." Revali did not elaborate.

"So he's always been a jerk."

"Yeah."

"He must have really crossed a line of some sort the other day, if you couldn't just ignore him after an entire childhood of putting up with him."

Revali did not answer. Though he did not move, he also would not meet her gaze.

"I know you don't want to talk about it," Urbosa said, and felt him tense. Her arm felt heavy, and keeping her fingers against his temple was beginning to feel awkward, but she was afraid he would leave if she moved. "But ignoring it isn't working. I don't know if you're trying to work through some stuff, or if you're just fixed on it and getting angrier the more you think about it, but whatever you're doing, it's not helping."

Carefully Revali reached up and removed her hand from the side of his head. "Did you ever ask the Princess what we talked about, that night she was so upset?" he asked. Thrown by the seeming change in topic, the Gerudo stared at him for a moment.

"She seemed to think anything you said was said in confidence," Urbosa finally admitted. "She did say that it helped, and that we didn't need to worry so much about you two getting along."

Revali let out a breath. "I told her a little bit about my childhood," he admitted. "She drew her own conclusions. You noticed, before, that I was smaller than the others."

She had not put it in exactly those words, but yes, Urbosa had teased him for being shorter than his fellow Rito. She wondered if she were about to regret it.

"I was small when I hatched. Small, and weak. They didn't think I'd survive." Revali refused to meet her eyes. Urbosa wondered if he realized he still held her hand; his attention seemed focused inward, so probably not. "And then they didn't think I'd be able to fly."

The Gerudo considered this. "Ilari and they others, they bullied you." She did not have to ask.

"I was different. Maybe even wrong. Old instincts can be difficult to ignore," he said, and Urbosa suddenly remembered that the Rito used to cull their weak and injured fledglings, if it seemed unlikely they would make it to adulthood. "I don't think they wanted to hurt me, not seriously. But our mothers tried to get us to play together, and most of the time they didn't want to. Unless they were teasing me."

"You mean tormenting you," Urbosa guessed. Revali did not deny it.

"We were fledglings. Young and stupid." He hesitated. "I don't know why I thought it would be different when we were older."

"Akoot seemed like he was trying," Urbosa offered lamely. She really had absolutely not idea what to say. Maybe there was nothing to say.

Revali scoffed. "Akoot never enjoyed teasing me as much as the others, and certainly never initiated anything, but he's a follower. He won't confront any of them directly, and he won't argue with his partner. Skett's really not bad though, if you can keep him away from Ilari and Pashi." He fell silent, Urbosa's slender hand still framed in his, his mind on the past.

"So what now?" The Gerudo asked. Revali hunched even further in on himself, his head dropping. His hand tightened around hers without conscious thought on his part.

"I don't want to talk about what happened," he said, sounding defeated. "It's not something that would make any kind of sense without a lot of background information. I'm not entirely sure it would make sense to a non-Rito even then." He paused. "And it was humiliating enough with just them."

The admission surprised the Gerudo. Revali did not like being vulnerable, and for him to open himself up like this was completely unexpected.

"You don't have to tell me," she said, uncertain how exactly to proceed. "You don't have to tell anyone, if you don't want to. Not now, maybe not ever, though certainly if you change your mind I'm always willing to listen. We do have to figure something out, though."

"I know." He sighed. "I don't know what to do. I'm used to being angry. There have been times that it's been the only thing that kept me going. But this-I can't seem to control it. I thought I could ride it out, but it only seems to be getting worse."

Urbosa hesitated for a moment. "Does the spear practice actually help?" she asked carefully. Revali shrugged.

"It's a distraction, I guess," he admitted. "Mipha wouldn't hesitate to knock me on my ass if I let my attention wander for even a second."

"What about meditation? It seemed to help the first time, at least for a while."

Revali rolled his shoulders and looked away. "I've never been much good at meditation," he admitted. "Not really a fan of just sitting there trying not to think about anything."

Urbosa could sympathize. She preferred to work through her own frustrations through sword practice, letting her mind work through whatever was bothering her while her body ran through drills that she had been doing so long they had become automatic.

"What about archery?" she asked. "I noticed Zelda's still practicing, but you haven't been going with her." That had perhaps been the clearest sign that something was seriously wrong with the Rito.

Revali shrugged. "Maybe," he said, not entirely convinced.

Urbosa offered him a cautious smile. "You never know until you try," she pointed out. "If that doesn't work, I suppose I could teach you to use a sword..."

Revali rolled his eyes. "You know, we do have swords. Bows and arrows aren't the only weapons we have."

"I've seen your skill with a spear..." Urbosa replied, her voice dry. "Mipha wins every time." Revali made a strangled noise in his throat, not quite able to form a response. "Are you going to tell me you know how to use a sword?" the Gerudo asked.

Revali sighed, his shoulders dropping. "No," he grumbled. "I was at least passable with the spear. Learning how to use a sword-getting even halfway decent with the thing-would have taken more work than I was willing to put in. It would have taken away from my archery practice."

Urbosa shrugged the admission off as if it were no big deal, though it surprised her, Revali actually admitting that he was bad at something. "I'm barely passable with a bow and arrow," she admitted.

"I'm aware," Revali retorted, his tone as dry as the Gerudo Desert.

They sat for a while in a silence that was not entirely uncomfortable. Urbosa continued to watch the children play while Revali sank into thought. Several times she thought the Rito wanted to say something, but he remained silent. His fellow Champion let him be.

"I thought it would be different." When he finally spoke, Revali caught the woman sitting beside him completely off guard. Her mind scrambled frantically for context and failed to find it.

"What would?" she asked. Revali shrugged.

"I guess I thought they would accept me. That they would have to."

"Because you're the Rito Champion?" Urbosa ventured. Revali's shoulders hunched, and he made as if to move away. "Some people don't change, Revali. That's on them. And you shouldn't waste your time worrying about what people like that think, because in the end, it doesn't matter."

Revali turned and skewered her with a raised eyebrow that clearly said he did not believe her. "You don't care what people think about you?"

Urbosa shrugged. "Sometimes I do," she admitted. "But there are always going to be people who don't like me, and there are always going to be people who don't approve of me-whether as the Gerudo Chieftan, the Gerudo Champion, or even just as a person. Those kind of people aren't going to go away, but they don't really matter. What they think they see in me doesn't change who I am." She elbowed the Rito gently in the ribs. "What your friends-or whatever you want to call them-think about you doesn't change who you are. Whether or not they accept you doesn't change your worth as a person."

The Rito let go of her hand. "Now that," he said, with a laugh, his tone mocking, "is complete and utter bullshit. Of course it matters what other people think. To try to pretend otherwise is to pretend the world works in a way entirely contrary to reality."

Revali stood abruptly, spreading his wings and taking flight.

Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda does not belong to me.