Almost forgot to post this today oh my Go-

Anyway! Thanks so much to Alice Ann-Wonderland (Well, ah...so you know how some things get worse before they get better? XD) and MexicAmerichick6 (Thank you! Teba's something of an underrated favorite of mine, I like him a lot :) for reviewing! I hope you continue to enjoy!

That said, on with the chapter!

~ Chapter 19 ~

Zelda knelt at the entrance to the cave, eyes narrowed against the stinging snowflakes that bit at her face as the storm raged on outside. Once she had ensured that Link would be alright for the time being, she had intended to focus on meditating to strengthen her supply of magic, but before she could close her eyes, something outside managed to catch her attention.

A flash of red amidst the swirling snow.

"I know you're out there…" the princess whispered, scanning the darkened, snowy landscape. Visibility was particularly low due to the blizzard, but the Yiga Clan's uniforms weren't exactly designed for winter camouflage. She had caught a glimpse of one before. She was sure she could do it again.

Truthfully, Zelda doubted any of them would come after her so long as she remained in the cave, and there was no way they had overheard her speaking her plans aloud to Link over the howling wind. Whether they were lying in wait outside or not, they had still underestimated her. As long as they assumed she was helpless, they likely wouldn't bother attacking her directly.

Still, she couldn't help but worry.

Thinking back to what the Yiga had done to Link while he was imprisoned in their hideout brought a flicker of fear into her heart. She knew what sort of vindictiveness they were capable of when it came to those who directly stood in the way of their demonic king's revival. Perhaps they felt more animosity towards Link, considering their leader had died at his hands, but Zelda was under no illusion that they didn't despise her as well.

One hundred years ago, if not for Link's quick action, they would have killed her. She knew that, eventually, they would try it again.

For now, however, she was certain that their intention was to make her suffer. They wanted her to watch her knight fall victim to the Malice that now poisoned his blood. They wanted her to see him lose control of his own body and murder the friends who were trying to take care of him. They wanted to break her heart before they finally thrust a blade through it.

"But they won't," she mumbled to herself. Because once again - they had underestimated her.

And they had made a very poor choice when deciding on her prison.

Zelda closed her eyes, extending her senses to the sky around the mountains. She sensed the golden tether of magic binding her to her knight, gleaming through the spiraling snowflakes. She caught several glimpses of red amidst the snowdrifts, the few Yiga unlucky enough to have been assigned as her guard huddling down behind mounds of stone and shivering in the whipping winds. She could see things that her actual eyes would never have seen through the blinding white snow.

A white fox hiding in its den. A cluster of Ice-Breath Lizalfos camouflaged in an expanse of snow. A Cold-Footed wolf pack taking shelter in a cave not unlike her own. And then finally - there. Exactly what she was looking for.

Iridescent silver scales shimmering in the clouds.

"Divine dragon Naydra," the princess whispered, sending her hushed voice towards the creature serenely undulating through the sky. "I am Zelda, descendent of the goddess Hylia's mortal incarnation, and the last princess of Hyrule. I must humbly request your assistance...there are traitors gathering upon your mountain."

For a moment, there was only a thoughtful silence from the creature. Then, a thunderous roar pierced both her extended senses and her actual elfin ears.

The half dozen Yiga positioned outside the cave started in fright, their masked faces whipping this way and that in an attempt to locate the source of the cry. Unfortunately for them, the whirling snow hid Naydra's glowing form from all except for Zelda - at least, until it was too late.

The dragon shrieked its anger once more while it descended through the clouds, and with it came bursts of ice that struck two of the Yiga footsoldiers, freezing them instantly where they stood. The other four were quick to teleport away in puffs of smoke, not waiting around to watch their unfortunate allies' bodies shatter into shards of ice.

A lump formed in Zelda's throat. Two lives, snuffed out in a matter of seconds. She knew she should be grateful - those two people had been her enemies, and if they had not died, they may have very well killed others, herself included. Still, knowing that she had just indirectly ordered the deaths of two human beings caused her skin to crawl.

She wondered how Link was able to perform such an act himself with no hesitation. Perhaps that was simply the nature of a knight?

Though the Yiga had been chased away, at least for the time being, the dragon remained. With a low, rumbling growl that didn't quite sound threatening, Naydra gripped the mountainside with its great icy claws and lowered its head to the cave's entrance in order to stare at her with one large, yellow eye.

Zelda's breath nearly left her lungs entirely.

She had known that Naydra roamed the Lanayru range thanks to Link's tales of his own travels in the area. She had also seen a photo of the sacred dragon registered in the Sheikah Slate's Hyrule Compendium, also courtesy of Link, and she had marveled at the still images of Naydra, Dinraal, and Farosh on multiple occasions.

Still, those tiny pictures on the Slate's screen could never have prepared her for actually standing before the colossal ice dragon.

The already-frigid temperature dropped even further in the creature's presence, but Zelda barely noticed the difference. Her wide eyes were drawn as if by magnetism to Naydra's dazzling silver-blue scales and ethereally glowing crown of ice. It snorted, releasing a puff of chilled, white mist, but it made no move to attack her. It knew that she was not among the traitors that had been defiling its mountain.

"Naydra…" the princess whispered, awestruck.

The dragon blinked at her in acknowledgement, then tilted its great head slightly, as though in a questioning manner.

For a moment, Zelda considered asking the dragon to take her back to Hateno Village, but perished the thought almost immediately. Even if she could have survived sitting astride Naydra's bitterly cold form, requesting that a divine being such as it carry her on its back would surely be a terrible insult. It had only answered her call in the first place because they shared an interest in driving back the Yiga footsoldiers. Goddess blood or not, she knew better than to ask Naydra so blatantly to do her bidding.

That being said...

"Naydra…" she repeated, bowing her head to the great dragon. "I...I'm afraid that Hylia's chosen hero is in danger. He has been suffering from the same Malice poisoning that once afflicted you…"

At the word "Malice," Naydra growled distastefully.

"The poor thing was covered in the stuff," Zelda recalled Link telling her once, an air of sympathy to his tone. "At first, it could barely move and looked like it was just clinging to life, but when I approached and angered the Malice, it couldn't stop writhing and thrashing. I had to chase it through the air with the paraglider for almost an hour to destroy all the Malice eyes that were growing out of it."

Zelda shuddered, hoping that Link himself never got to the point of being covered with Malice eyes. Regardless, she quietly prayed that Naydra and her knight's shared experiences would trigger at least some form of empathy within the dragon.

"I must get home to his side somehow, but the goddess power within me has waned over the past hundred years," she continued, shifting under Naydra's scrutinizing gaze. "I require time to build up that magic once again. I would never dare to ask you for a favor, but...I must warn you. As long as I am here, the Yiga traitors will likely return. They will keep a close watch on this cave and, if they figure out what it is I'm doing...they will attempt to kill me." She sighed. "At this rate...I fear that nothing less than a dragon will keep them away."

The dragon in question regarded her calmly for a few moments, heedless of the wind that swept stinging snow into its thick hide. Then, it gave a soft snort, which Zelda hoped she could interpret as assent. Naydra released its clawed grip on the mountain and gradually climbed back into the sky, though it didn't break through the cloud cover this time. Instead, it slowly circled in the air above the cave, as though patrolling the area.

The princess finally released the deep breath she had been holding. "Thank you," she whispered, backing into the cave once again to take advantage of what meager warmth it offered. A part of her had admittedly been worried that Naydra would simply decide to freeze her solid like it did to the two unfortunate Yiga, but it appeared that her fears had been unfounded. Whether it had been because of the goddess blood that flowed through her veins or because of the kindness Link had once shown in ridding the dragon of its own Malice poisoning, she figured she could officially count Naydra as an ally.

"And now that the Yiga Clan will be less inclined to bother me…" Zelda mumbled to herself. She dropped to the cave floor, sitting cross-legged and straight-backed as her eyes narrowed in concentration. "...it's about time I figured out how exactly I'm going to get home."