Revali strolled alone through the wilderness surrounding Hyrule Castle in the early morning. He couldn't wait until this whole Calamity Ganon ordeal was over so he could go back to his regular rito life, his flight range, and his hammock. God, how he missed his his long torso to stretch, he listened to nature on the castle grounds, talking to himself, as he usually did.
"Straw-filled mattresses? Seriously? What, the King can't be bothered to pull a couple rupees from his ass of wealth for some fine, feather-filled Rito ones for crying out loud? Oh no, of course not. We're the champions of Hyrule, clearly expected to go out and fight Ganon with our aching backs. Hmph. Honestly, it's insulting."
He wanted badly to just fly off right then and there, but the team hadn't reconvened for the day to go over plans, so he was stuck until then.
"At least there's some soothing sounds around here… birds chirping, dragonflies humming, the faint sound of sobbing…" Revali paused, hearing a delicate whimper near the sacred grounds. "Wait… what?"
He sauntered up to the structure and immediately recognized one of his fellow champions kneeled at the outer ring of stone and water. It was Mipha. He hadn't realized anyone else was up. She leaned against her trident, quietly crying, adding her tears to the pool.
"Are you… alright?" Revali asked hesitantly.
Mipha's shoulder's tensed up. She looked over to see Revali standing at a distance.
"Oh! Um... yes, I'm fine." Mipha stood, still staring down at the pool of water, facing away from the rito.
Revali cocked an eyebrow, not buying it. "That's an odd thing to say while crying."
Mipha stayed silent, as she wiped away a single tear.
He began to back away. "Well, I suppose it's none of my business anyhow."
"No, it's alright," she replied. "Thank you... for asking."
The Rito champ felt pleased with himself for being so gracious. He thought he might continue. "I hope this isn't about the Divine beasts. From what I heard, your proficiency piloting Ruta was almost as remarkable as my own... with Medoh, that is."
"Oh, no... it's not that." Mipha responded wistfully, still staring at the water.
Revali studied her expression, unsure what to say. His hopeful carriage of being able to stop her tears had come to a halt. He had an idea what could have been on her mind, but thought it best not to pry—especially since he had just realized how little he cared about the matter. This was undoubtedly about the insufferable Link.
"Very well. I will uh, leave you to it then." He turned to depart, then swung his beak over his shoulder and stated casually, "But, you should know... he really isn't worth crying over."
Mipha suddenly looked up at him. She watched as he leapt into the air.
Later that afternoon, Revali made the decision to practice his aim near the surrounding trees while the other champions conversed around the campfire. They had finally taken a break from accompanying Zelda on her little safari to learn more about the local wildlife and it's scientific effects. She enjoyed the assistance, considering how her scholarly efforts weren't supported by her father in this time of crisis, but Revali didn't see why they all had to be there. This was what the king hired that little knight of hers, Link for.
He had discussed departing out loud and quickly realized his mistake when they all groaned about how anti-social he was, basically expecting he would leave. He almost abandoned them on principle, but he couldn't allow himself to do it. When others had a negative assumption about him, he hated to let them have the satisfaction of being right. Wether they actually wanted him there or not was of little concern to him. He stayed, just to be obstinate.
As he practiced, he fired arrows rapidly at multiple trees with targets he'd made for himself. They were sheets of parchment adorning Link's crudely drawn face. Shooting the knight gave him a small amount of amusement. Two arrows hit their respective targets, hitting the drawings right between Link's lop-sided eyes. The third one however, missed, landing on the forehead. It was still a good shot, but not good enough for Revali. He went to retrieve the AWOL arrow. Using it as a twisted surrogate for himself, he shook it in his fist, cursing at it and giving it a stern talking to. "Why, why? Can't you see Hyrule is in a state of emergency? There's no time for you to be playing games, you hear me? Get your shit together."
The sound of Mipha giggling from behind startled him, "Did that one get out of line?" She asked.
Revali whipped around, a little embarrassed, though he quickly regained his composure. "In a manner of speaking," he said, putting the arrow into his quiver. His memory couldn't help but recall when Princess Zelda saw him fall while practicing his gale. "Ugh, why do you people always happen upon me during the most inopportune moments?"
"Well, you saw me earlier," Mipha peeped.
Revali remembered the pathetic sight of her perched near the sacred grounds. "Hmph. Fair enough," he responded. "So, do you need more of my expert advice? Or are you just lost?"
"Well actually," she hesitated, "I was sort of hoping you could teach me."
Revali's eyebrows lifted at the sound of this odd request. "Teach you?" He huffed, "Teach you what exactly?"
"How to shoot." Mipha made the motion of shooting an imaginary bow and arrow with her arms. "I've never learned to use a bow properly and I'm quite curious."
Revali was a little surprised by this. Mipha wanted to learn the great art of archery from none other than he, the legendary Rito, Master Revali, instead of that wannabe, airhead, Link. True, he himself was the only one qualified to give such instruction, but it was more than obvious this zora princess had a clear—and completely erroneous—crush on the supposed chosen one.
"You want me to teach you to shoot?"
Mipha nodded.
"What about the golden boy over there?" Revali gestured his wing toward the campfire where Link could be seen chowing down sloppily on some mushroom skewers, apparently in an eating contest with Daruk. "You two are friends, yes? So why not ask him?"
Mipha looked away, a sudden despondency in her voice. "Link's much too busy protecting Princess Zelda I think. I wouldn't want to take him away from his duties."
Revali could see right through her. It was obvious she was just trying to distance herself from the object of her affection to avoid her inevitable heartbreak. Thank the skies he didn't have any issues of that sort. Poor fish girl.
"Right," He continued. "Well, the appropriate answer would have been, 'Because, Revali, you're a master at your craft and the best champion with archery skills beyond compare, and it would be a great honor to learn from you.'" Revali mimicked her soft-high pitch tone before dropping back to his regular register. "But, I suppose I'll allow it."
Mipha smiled and gave a weak chuckle at his antics. With Daruk being an absolute dolt, Urbosa taking every possible opportunity to belittle him, and Link being... well, Link, him and his constant silent treatment, Revali had concluded that out of all the other champions, Mipha was certainly the most tolerable to be around. At least she appreciated his distinct charm.
He knew teaching her went against the rito village traditions of women singing and men becoming warriors, but he wasn't at his village, and Mipha certainly wasn't a rito. She was clearly an accomplished spear-wielding fighter amongst her kind, and a princess to boot. Why not give her a quick lesson.
Revali gathered his great eagle bow and held it out, then retracted, noticing her small frame. "Hm, I dunno. This bow isn't exactly your size. It's quite heavy, and large. Even for me. It's taken lots of practice, patience, and pain to be as good as I am with this."
"I'm no stranger to those things," Mipha snapped. "But, I guess I could ask Link for his bow temporarily…" she thought out loud.
"However," Revali continued, "You're a champion, are you not? Besides, it'll be more of a challenge to use my bow anyway. And challenge..." he dramatically waved his wing at himself, "builds character."
Mipha took the bow from Ravali, but she didn't strain under the weight of it like he had expected. This girl was definitely stronger than she looked. "Alright, so you'll want to hold the bow out with your non-dominant hand and pull the string back to your jaw with the other."
Mipha did as he instructed, practicing her release of the string. Once she got that down, He added an arrow to her draw. "Okay, now try aiming for one of the targets."
"Why are all of your targets shaped like demented squirrels?" Mipha innocently asked.
"Squirrels!?" Revali almost corrected her, but clamped his beak shut, remembering her feelings for the obnoxious swordsman. It was probably for the best at this moment that his drawings were unrecognizable. "Oh, um, I dunno, they're annoying. Shoot whichever one you want."
Revali noticed her taking aim and he could already tell she was going to miss, her trajectory was too low. When she took her shot, his assumption was confirmed. "You'll have to aim higher than that if you want to hit anything from a distance." Though she missed the shot, and as condescending as he sounded, he noticed it wasn't bad for a first attempt. He remembered teaching some of the children back in his village, most wouldn't even be able to get the damn arrow to fly.
Mipha raised the bow a bit and seemed to be holding onto the string just a tad too long. Revali tried to correct her again. "Maybe not that high. Also you don't want to hold the string so long, you have to be confident in your draw-"
Mipha let go of the string and instantly let out a yelp. Revali leapt up immediately to her aid as the arrow went flying away into the canopy of the trees. He checked Mipha's arm holding the bow and noticed a red mark. "String slap," he muttered as he tsk-tsked. "Here, take aim again, and this time you're going to want to tilt your elbow outward to avoid that happening."
As he was adjusting her stance, he suddenly realized how close he was to her. He was touching a princess! She didn't seem to notice, but as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he pulled his feathers away from her. "Anyway, that's probably good."
"Is my aim okay?" Mipha asked. Revali noticed that perhaps it could be a teensy bit higher. He awkwardly used his index feather to tilt her arm and elbow up from the bottom, as if touching her might cause him to contract something horrible. "Now it is," he replied, gesturing for her to have at it.
Mipha took aim, drawing the string.
"Remember. Confidence," he repeated quietly.
Mipha breathed out and released the arrow. It missed the target but still hit the trunk of the tree.
"Nice!" Revali clenched his wings into fists. He surprised himself a little with his glee. Teaching, he remembered, could really be rewarding.
"Oh, but I missed the target." Mipha seemed slightly disappointed.
"Eh, it's progress. Besides I'm sure you wouldn't want to hurt that squirrel," Revali smirked to himself.
The reassurance in his voice made Mipha smile. Revali looked past his apprentice and back at the campfire. Zelda, Urbosa, Daruk, and even Link were staring in their direction. He could have, and would have, sworn on the goddess Hylia herself that Zelda had a big stupid smile on her face. Revali quickly turned his back to Mipha and gathered his arrows. "That's enough for tonight."
"Aw, but I was just getting the hang of it," Mipha insisted.
Revali approached her and took back his great eagle bow. "We're done here." he said plainly as he walked further away from camp, and Mipha.