*One Final Warning: If you are easily disturbed, the rest of this story will be fairly 'real'. You have been warned. The true story begins now. Enjoy.*

The girl shifted her thighs as they stung slightly from the leathery armor she currently resided on. Zelda sighed as she looked on at the passing clouds of the Hyrule sky, the breeze brushing past her face. The sunlight illuminated those same cotton-like clouds, giving them an orangish tint as the sun had begun to drop, the Hebra Mountains starting to cover what little sunlight remained. Zelda inhaled as she took in the now icy air as Kass and herself began to fly over the Ridgeland region.

"It just occurred to me that we could have used the Sheikah Slate to teleport here," Kass mentioned tiredly as he flapped his wings to keep them in the air. "Any reason why you wanted to take the long trip and fly here?"

"I just wanted to enjoy the scenery," Zelda said simply as she closed her notebook, now filled with written down versions of the signals that had come from Vah Rudania. While the girl wasn't entirely lying, she hadn't given the entire reason as to why she had chosen to fly along with Kass to Rito Village: it was simply to put off having to see him again. "Are you growing weary, Kass? I didn't know the Rito could get tired of flying."

"While that's not entirely false, it's not the flying that's got me so tired," Kass said, yawning once again. He still hadn't slept from the night before, the encounter with the Yiga still vivid in his mind.

"Sorry, we did leave immediately after our encounter with the Divine Beast," Zelda said apologetically, just now considering the amount of tiring activities she had put her newfound friend through. "Would you like to land for a bit and rest?"

"No need," the Rito said with a grin spreading across his beak. "It seems we've arrived."

Zelda's eyes furrowed in confusion as she lifted her head, her eyes now facing directly forward. There in the distance, becoming increasingly more clear through the orange clouds, was an unimaginably tall rock pillar. The pillar towered into the sky, the top of it bulging out as it created a cane-like appearance. And on that oversized rock-made cane sat the glorious divine bird, Vah Medoh. Its wings remained outstretched as its large mechanical claws gripped the stone perch, its body glowing in the dimming sky as if signaling her and the Rito towards the village.

The closer the two got, the more Zelda could now make out the crevices and rope bridges of Rito Village. The bridges led up towards the spiraling, wooden civilization of the Rito. Small yellowish lights began to sparkle around the rock as the city lanterns began to illuminate in preparation for the inevitable darkness of the night. From the distance, Zelda could barely make out the small Rito children fluttering around the city, apparently playing as the townsfolk had begun to shut down for the evening. However, as glorious of a scene this was to take in, Zelda couldn't help but frown.

She looked down at the ever-growing stable that remained stationed near the woods on the outer borders of the canyon surrounding the Rito's home. Thankfully, the glowing white mane of Epona couldn't be seen from the sky. Zelda felt a bit of relief fill her chest, though a contradicting feeling of irritation had grown as well; she had beaten him here. Zelda exhaled, her now-visible breath dissipating into the cold air..

"Well then," Zelda said, trying to push aside her irritation towards Link for now. "Can you drop me off at Vah Medoh? I'll be able to get down on my own."

"What if the beast reacts just as the last one did?" Kass asked, wishing not to have another divine tussle. Zelda looked up towards the beast in response, seemingly unfazed.

"We'll just do as before. I'll dive and land on the beast. It's no different from the beast before. It's sitting upright so I'll land on the main terminal like last time," Zelda explained. Kass nodded in agreement. Who was he to challenge her crazy antics? At least there wasn't a batch of lava below them this time.

With strong flaps of the wings, Kass began to fly higher into the sky, surpassing the top of Vah Medoh itself. As soon as they were a good distance above, Kass began to circle high above the beast just as he had Rudania.

"Are you alright up there?" Kass called out over the increasingly loud winds. "It gets mighty cold this high up!"

"Y-Y-You're n-not wrong," Zelda shivered as ice practically formed in her breaths. Her fingers had begun to redden as feeling started to wane. This wasn't good.

"Are you sure Link doesn't have something in the Slate you could use for warmth?" the Rito called out, still gliding through the icy air. Zelda's fingers shakily wrapped around the Sheikah Slate as she lifted it up, tapping on the screen. After searching through for a moment, she found it. With a tap, the feathery outfit appeared in a sparkle of blue light.

Quickly pulling it over her Hylian Tunic, instant warmth began to fill her body as the Snowquill Tunic formed to her body. With extra mass from the Hylian Tunic underneath, Link and her were the same size. This would work.

"Okay! I'm all well," Zelda said, the shakiness in her voice disappearing. "I shall meet you soon Kass!"

"Understood. Stay safe up there on Vah Medoh!" Kass called out with a smile. Zelda nodded before jumping from Kass's back. Zelda dived downward towards the slanted backside of Vah Medoh where the main terminal rested, watching as Kass dove even faster past her, rocketing towards Rito Village. Zelda took a breath as she focused in at the growing terminal as she fell faster and faster.

Moments before Zelda could crash into the terminal, she deployed her paraglider and began to soar, landing awkwardly on the terminal as she tried her best not to slip. These things really weren't meant for landing on, after all. Regaining her balance, Zelda sat on the terminal just as she had done with Vah Rudania, pulling out the Sheikah Slate once again. It was hard to hear over the whistling of the winds, however she could faintly hear the same beeping coming from the terminal.

(... - - - ... )S.O.S Signal: From || Vah Medoh

(... - - - ... )S.O.S Signal: From || Vah Medoh

(... - - -)S.O/

(... - - - ... )S.O.S/ Medoh

/

(... .- -..)S.A.D: Threat || Rito Champion

(... .- -..)S.A.D: Threat || RitoChampion

(... .- -..)S.A.D: Threat || Rito/ oh

(... - - - ...)S.O.S Signal: From || Vah Medoh

"Same as before, the Divine Beast is sending out signals..." Zelda mumbled to herself. She looked up to inspect the beast. The wings continued to glow their ancient blue color and no Malice seemed to be remotely anywhere among the beast. Everything seemed normal.

"Are these old signals?" Zelda wondered out loud as she looked back down at the slate. That couldn't be right though. The signals should have been cleared the moment Link activated the terminals upon his first arrival. But there seemed to be two sets of signals contradicting each other: one labeled S.O.S. and another S.A.D. If these did happen to be old signals, then the only logical explanation was that the beasts were regressing back to when they had been taken over by the Calamity a hundred years ago. But why? If there wasn't any Malice, what or who would trigger these signals? And what did S.A.D. stand for?

"You wouldn't be the one sending these signals out, would you, Revali?" Zelda asked the Rito Champion. If Daruk's spirit was still in the beast, then Revali's had to be as well. However, no response came from Vah Medoh's beak. Zelda sighed. Either Revali was able to pass on without a hitch, or he seemed to believe that someone like her shouldn't require his assistance. As much as she didn't want to believe it, something told her it seemed much more in character for Revali to simply not respond.

"I figured," Zelda said, putting the Sheikah Slate away. Zelda shivered as a bone-chilling wave of cold air brushed past her. Even with the Snowquill Tunic and the Hylian Tunic under, it was still chilly. "I guess I'll figure out more when I get down from here."

Zelda stood, shaking the cold away from her arms as she prepared to make her descent. After a few moments of staring out into the mountainous terrain of the Hebra Region, Zelda jumped, releasing the paraglider as she soared down the cane-like stone tower. With the gentle tap of leather on wood, Zelda's boot-covered toes pressed down against one of the highest platforms. Zelda pulled off the Snowquill Tunic and put it back in the Slate before beginning to look around at her surroundings.

The sun had completely set at this point as the lanterns littered around Rito Village began to glow, the light radiating brightly and illuminating the wooden paths of the village. While this seemed to brighten the place up enough, a large blue light emanated from only a few feet away from her. Zelda turned to see a shrine, glowing bright blue in the night sky as it sat peacefully beyond the platform fences. She then looked up at the only other light source available: the stars. She couldn't understand why, but the stars always seemed much brighter in Rito Village than anywhere else. Perhaps due to the elevation?

Zelda shrugged as she bent down just a bit, rubbing the inside of her thighs. Sitting on Kass's back for a day straight wasn't the best choice. She could feel a rash burning the inner area of her thigh. She couldn't wait to get out of these clothes. When was the last time she had bathed properly? It had to have been back in Zora's Domain last she could remember. The true life of a traveler.

She stood straight, now stretching her arms up towards the starry sky before putting her hands on her hips. Nothing left to do now but find an inn. She had a long night of studying ahead of her, and she couldn't let anything distract her. She had to know what was going on with the Divine Beast and where she was supposed to head next. There was a trial ahead of her, and she needed as much information as she could get. She had gathered multiple clues along her journey; it was time to sort them out.

Her shoulders relaxed as her arms fell loosely to her sides. She turned as she began to walk towards the rope bridge behind her to enter the city; however, Zelda instantly stopped. There, at the bridge entrance, stood a Hylian. His hair, a sandy brown hair wild, was tied into a ponytail as his amazingly long sideburns fell to his shoulders. He seemed to have a bright blue tattered shirt wrapped around his neck, apparently repurposing the torn tunic as a scarf, while the rest of his body barred the cold air with what seemed to be a warm doublet. The Hylain smiled as his bright blue eyes, the lantern light illuminating them, looked back into Zelda's green.

"Hi there!" Link said happily as he brought up a hand in greeting. "It's really good to see you, Zelda."

Multiple emotions flooded Zelda's chest as she stared into Link's eyes, however only the most prominent of those emotions seemed to take hold. Zelda's eyebrows furrowed as she bawled her hands into fist.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Zelda growled as she walked past Link as she headed across the bridge. Link blinked a few times, utterly surprised at the more than cold greeting he received. However he shrugged. Maybe her journey was a bit tough on the way here.

"In my defense, Kass told me you guys only got here a little bit ago," Link said, his cheerful tone remaining as he followed after her, "but I'll give that to you. Sorry I didn't meet you here on time."

Zelda felt a temple grow on her forehead. Why was he so... relaxed? Did he truly believe they would go back to being normal after what happened? Zelda sighed. This isn't what she needed right now. She didn't want to deal with this.

"So you spoke to Kass already," Zelda said coldly as she began to walk down the wooden stairs of the village.

"Yeah, he was heading home to see his family. He hadn't seen them in a while due to his journeys and music studies. One heck of a guy," Link said casually as he followed behind Zelda. "So... how was Goron City?"

Zelda bit her lip.

"Perfectly fine, Link," Zelda responded simply as they passed the small wooden huts. "Nothing at all went wrong."

"Oh, that's great," Link said, relief obviously clear in his voice. Did he still not believe in her?

"What, did you expect things to go wrong?" Zelda asked in a frustrated tone.

"No! No, it's just you know... anything can go wrong," Link said, trying to explain his relief. "Who knows if a Yiga ended up still following you, or something else had happened. I wasn't too worried though. You're strong."

"You're contradicting yourself," Zelda said, slowing her walk as she looked around for the inn. "I'm glad you're so relieved. Seemed like you had a blast on your own."

Link, now catching on to Zelda's demeanor, furrowed his eyebrows just a bit.

"Not necessarily," Link said a bit slowly, now doing his best to pay attention to Zelda's attitude. "In fact, for the record I died out there. It's only because of Mipha I'm still here."

Something in Zelda snapped.

"Well I'm glad you're alright!" Zelda said, continuing her pace down Rito Village's pathways. "Really there was no need to worry since you have Mipha to protect you. Why bother worrying about you in the first place? You seem to have everything under control. And where is the stupid inn!?"

"If the inn is what you're looking for, you passed it a while ago. The hut with all the beds in it?" said Link, pointing up behind him, back towards the upper parts of Rito Village. Zelda fumed.

"Why didn't you say that earlier!?" Zelda yelled, snapping around in a circle now facing Link. "Why would you let us get all the way down here before calling that out!?"

"Well, I'm sorry, but you didn't exactly mention an inn was what you were looking for," Link said, now getting a bit agitated himself. Zelda huffed as she pushed past the knight as she began to head back up the stairs.

"You could've assumed! You seem to be really good at assuming what I want," Zelda called out as she passed by.

"Okay, do you have something to say?" Link called out, almost threateningly. Zelda stopped in her tracks. Did Link just show her attitude? Link? The knight so committed to not allowing his emotions to be free? That Link?

"If you've got something to say, say it," Link said, folding his arms. "Go on."

Oh. Okay then, Zelda thought as she slowly turned towards Link, now a few steps below her. It looked like she was dealing with this now.

"You know what, I do have something to say," Zelda said slowly as she began to walk down the stairs towards Link. She walked until she stood right in front of the dirty blond Hylian. She raised her fist, now using her pointer finger as she pushed it in the middle of his chest with every word. "You left. You left without saying a word. You didn't ask me, you didn't consider my feelings. All you did was leave me in Akkala, alone. I was worried about you Link! You could have died! And then where would I be? Oh, but you don't care because I'm just some irresponsible princess who needs to be taken care of!"

"I left, because I had to," Link said darkly, grabbing Zelda's hand as he pulled it away from his chest. "You think I wanted to leave? Zelda, they were looking for you, not for me. They didn't fully know if you were 'Princess Zelda' or not; I had to leave so they would think you were some random traveler."

"That doesn't change the fact that you didn't say anything!" Zelda yelled, yanking her hand away from Link's grasp. "You could have at least told me! The Yiga had left! You could have at least told me what the plan was instead of having Robbie relay it to me! Did you think I wouldn't understand? Do you think I'm an idiot who can't understand simple things?"

"I didn't say that," Link said, his voice beginning to raise. "But I didn't want emotions getting in the way of our decision."

"Our decision!?" Zelda yelled. "Our decision? Link, it was your decision! It was all your decision! And what emotions!? Apparently you don't have those!"

"What do you mean I don't have those?! Sorry, I got pretty used to being alone out here in the wild and making my own choices!" Link said, now fully matching Zelda's yelling voice. "What, are you saying I don't care about you?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't!" shouted Zelda. She couldn't help but be a bit surprised. She had never heard Link get this loud before, however her surprise was completely overshadowed by her rage. "You don't seem to trust me enough to talk to me about things!"

"I didn't want my emotions to get in the way, Zelda!" Link shouted back, pointing at himself. "What if I couldn't protect you? That's on me! I could barely protect Robbie, there's no way I could protect you from them! And if I'm being honest, it wouldn't have been good for you to be there if I could."

"Oh, and what makes you say that?" Zelda asked, putting her hands on her hips. "Why wouldn't I have been much help?"

"Because you make dumb decisions!" Link said blatantly.

"So you do think that I make poor decisions!" Zelda shouted, throwing her fist down in anger.

"Can't help but think about it after you almost killed us with a boulder!" Link shouted back, now pointing his own finger at Zelda, who looked drastically offended.

"That was an accident!" Zelda said defensively. "Everyone makes mistakes!"

"Not mistakes that almost get themselves killed!" Link said loudly. "I can't have that on the field!"

"Link, you've almost gotten yourself killed from dumb decisions numerous times!" Zelda retorted, smacking Link's pointer finger away. "I've seen pieces of your journey! You aren't the greatest at safety either! Are you going to blame your emotions on those? That's laughable."

"I meant emotions with us!" Link yelled.

"YOU DON'T HAVE THOSE, LINK!" screeched Zelda as Link had begun to pace from side to side, his hands resting on the top of his head. "This is the first time I've ever even heard words escape your mouth this loud!"

"Why do you keep saying that!?" Link shouted back. "You really believe I don't have emotions!?"

"If you did, you would have responded!" Zelda yelled.

"RESPONDED TO WHAT!?" Link shouted, slamming his fist on the rocky wall the wooden stairs were connected to. "What am I supposed to be responding to!? You aren't saying what that is!"

"You should know!" Zelda yelled. "You've known this entire time and haven't said anything! If you simply weren't interested or didn't care you should've just said so, you stupid idiot!"

"I'm an idiot?!" Link shouted back. "You haven't said what the hell I'm supposed to be responding to!"

"My feelings for you, you complete and utter arse!" Zelda screamed at the top of her lungs, as tears began to roll down her cheeks. "You haven't responded to them at all!"

"This is the first time you've ever said anything about feelings for me!" Link said angrily. He wasn't about to let Zelda pull the emotional card on him. She wanted his emotions, he was going to give her emotions. "Was I supposed to just know!?"

"I gave you so many hints!" Zelda shouted, slamming her fist onto Link's chest. Link however pulled her arm away once again, a bit more harshly this time. "First off, stop that," Link said threateningly. "Second, how am I supposed to pick up on that? You're a princess! I can't just take simple gestures and assume someone of your status likes me-"

"For the last time, I am not a princess anymore!" Zelda screamed, ripping her hand away from Link's grasp. "Why can't you see that!?"

"Because I'm not supposed to see that!" Link shouted. "You were a princess, I was your knight! I can't accept simple gestures and assume it's romance!"

"Oh really?" Zelda said with a bit of an evil tone. "So what? Mipha was different? She was a princess too, right? You seemed to have a close bond with her!"

Link's eyes grew wide with disgust.

"Are you serious?" Link said slowly. "You're really going there? Zelda, I didn't love her, and bringing her feelings into this is just wrong!"

"What's wrong is the continuous lie you've been spilling this entire time!" Zelda shouted, stamping her foot. "And it's not wrong if it's true! From the stories Kodah told me, you and Mipha had one hell of a close relationship! You say you can't break boundaries, but you did with her!"

"I was close with Mipha because we damn near grew up together, Zelda!" Link yelled. "King Dorephan knew me, I- I was some random knight to your father!"

"Don't bring my father into this, Link! The only thing my father cared about was my training!" Zelda said, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"You brought Mipha into this! And the king is much more of an argument to make!" Link bellowed. "He was my king, Zelda. My king. The king I let down."

"Oh don't give me that, Link," Zelda said coldly as she began to turn towards the stairs again. "You don't get to say that. Not around me. I brought up Mipha because I felt bad for loving you when she loved you. If you loved her or felt bad or something, you should have just said so. I'm done with this. I'm going to bed."

"Stop bringing her up! And no, you still haven't told me what I'm supposedly lying about!" Link said angrily. Zelda immediately spun on the spot.

"Are you kidding me!?" Zelda called out loudly. "Link, I've been with Kass for three days! I know you heard that song about my feelings! You've known for months!"

"I didn't know the song meant romance!" Link bellowed. "Not many knights think their princess would just fall for them!"

"How... how could that not mean romance!? You know what? I'm positive most guys would want a princess's affection!" Zelda shouted back. "It's fine," she said, averting her eyes from Link's, "It's not there for you anymore, anyways."

Link took a step back from that, however his face remained stone cold.

"Alright then. Fine," Link said, turning to walk away.

"Are you just going to leave again?" Zelda called out.

"I'll be at the stable. I'm not doing this," Link said as he walked away, the purple hilt of the Master Sword shining in the moonlight as he walked away. Zelda's fist balled up, her knuckles turning white.

"Well I hope you forget, just like you did before!" She yelled as Link walked away. "Forget about my feelings! Your name might as well be Lunk! The lunk of Hyrule!"

She took a few deep breaths, tears continuing to fall down her face as she watched Link walk away before storming up the stairs. She quickly found her way to the inn as she paid for her bed, practically running towards it until she flopped down face first.

She couldn't hold it in. Every ounce of emotion she had built up inside of her came gushing out. She hadn't meant it; she hadn't meant half the things she had said. It was unfair to bring Mipha up. It was unfair to Mipha when she was no longer with them. If anything, Mipha was the person she wanted to talk to most right now. How did she go on loving Link if Mipha knew he didn't properly love him back?

"I don't know what to do..." Zelda cried, curling into a ball as she pulled her pillow close to her chest. "Mipha... how did you do this? How did you love someone you felt you couldn't properly have?"

Zelda's notebook slid from her side as it landed on the bed. Zelda slowly picked it up as she stared at it with her bloodshot eyes. She shakily took out her quill and quickly wrote something inside of it before leaving it on the bed and turning over to the other side.

S.O.S. Hylian Princess

While Zelda cried in the village above, Link sat against a tree on the outskirts of the stable, the Master Sword in hand as he stared at the still, dull blade glistening in the moonlight.

"Good thing we were on the lower level of the village... I shouldn't have brought up the king," Link said to the sword. "That was low. I shouldn't have brought up a lot of things. I didn't get to tell her how I feel about her either..."

Link rested the sword in his lap as he looked up at the bright moon above them.

"I guess there's no point in telling her now."

...

Wow! At the time of writing this it is 6 A.M! I started writing this at 10 P.M last night! Well, I've been building up to this fight for a LONG time now, so I hope I delivered! What did you guys think of the fight? Who was right? Was either one of them right? How did you feel? I wanna know! Comment, comment, comment! I love comments, lemme hear those thoughts as we continue with Couple of the Wild.

I know this is a very real and powerful moment for the two of them. This fight was hard to write.

From Mipha, to Links thoughts about the King, to the misunderstandings, to decisions from the past, Zelda not confessing while Link assumed that she didn't like him... All of this has been building up since literally chapter one. Link has always kept a distance, while Zelda has been a bit jealous and tries to create love without stating it.

This fight was bound to happen, and it was going to be this bad. Link and Zelda are people. And they are real people.

Zelda says a lot of things she doesn't mean. The whole first part of the games cutscenes kinda establish this when she gives Link shit for months just because he has the Master Sword. Imagine how Zelda would act if given a real personality when she's jealous about another girl? As shown in this book... I imagine her stubborn self saying a few things!

And regarding Link? He's been told to show more emotions this entire story and in the game. And of course, his ranger side and his freedom side kinda came out here.

It's a rough moment for the two of them. A moment even I had to kinda wrap my head around. They are real teenagers in a medieval cursed society with everything riding on their shoulders. God damn. A fight was bound to happen now that they literally are playing by their own rules without realizing it.

Now the question is, how are they going to continue this quest with neither one of them truly on the same page?

Kenny Boi