Link held his head low, not so much for shame but to avoid any critical glares that might come his way. He hadn't much in the way of qualms when it came to deferring the Company's mission in favor of his knightly duties, but still, in the days he'd spent with those Champions, he couldn't help but feel some sense of camaraderie that now tugged at him.
The unit of soldiers had brought Zelda's Champions through the canyon and now took the route through the southern portion of Hyrule Kingdom, familiar enough lands to be sure. Still, as nice as it should have been to see, Zelda remained with a bitter taste in her mouth at how she was being treated, by her own father no less. So determined had she been to burst from her protective cocoon and make her own trail in the world, but now with this vice around her, brought on by her father, she felt a frustration within her, akin to rebelliousness, though knew she hadn't a choice to comply.
She lifted her head to watch the Champions, guilt-ridden that they'd been caught up in this mess of her own inadvertant design. She couldn't thank them for their compliance, simply curling her brow sadly as they came along willingly, even if with various degrees and frustrations among their own selves. Revali continued giving the soldiers around him verbal beatings whenever he could, his face seemingly permanent in its scowl, probably even more belligerent at the idea of visiting Hyrule Kingdom itself. Zelda wondered how hurt he might have felt, deep inside, that were this situation more serious, he likely wouldn't have a single Rito coming to his aid. She couldn't help but feel heart-broken at the thought.
"Even your mother wouldn't come and save you," Zelda could hear the snivelings of his countrymen with sorrowful tones.
Urbosa, while upset herself, carried on as she normally would, her hands buried into her pockets as she did her best to remain bolstered by perseverance. As the one most familiar with Hyrule Kingdom, and especially with the King himself, Zelda figured she mustn't have had much in the way of worry. This was just another trip to the castle, perhaps, even if it was cutting into a cause that Urbosa had taken personally, even if, initially, only at Zelda's insistence. Maybe she was taking the same stance as Zelda- feeling more for the others than herself.
For his own part, Daruk was the most weary about the ordeal, partially caused by his inability to clarify the situation and better understand Hyrule Kingdom at large. He wanted no trouble for his sworn brother, and yet, he so desperately wanted to ask Link so much, particularly his allegiances, even if he knew that Link was a knight through and through. Beyond that, as a Goron, Daruk hadn't exactly been in a situation as this before. He wasn't entire sure if there were some etiquette to being escorted by soldiers or if there were things he should be doing. He failed to ask, however, simply watching the others to find them reacting more or less as though little had changed.
Mipha, on the other hand, couldn'y take her eyes of Link. They weren't the eyes of a unrequited admirer, but of somebody confused, trying to understand. There was a sorrowful nature about those eyes as well, Mipha silently wondering what must be going through Link's mind at the moment. She had sparred with him often in the past; she knew how postures, his cadences- these were the things observed by an unrequited lover. However, now, she only watched him carry himself with such stringency, as though he were forcing himself to remain proper.
"Just tell me," Zelda spoke up with deliberate accusation, "How ashamed of me is my father?"
Ruzoll grumbled, "He's not ashamed, child; you know that. He's always enjoyed your imaginative side."
"So it's just imagination now, isn't it?"
He returned, "You must understand how this might appear to the other people of Hyrule. Especially as the heiress to the crown, you have a responsibility to look upon this situation with the lens of a queen. When your mother walked this earth, you had her succession to hide behind, but now, you are your father's successor. You shan't squander that duty."
"I'm doing everything I can to protect, not only my future subjects, but everybody in Hyrule!" Zelda challenged passionately, though Ruzoll remained unfazed.
He shook his head, "Princess, I've been at your father's side ever since you were born. You're very much the daughter I never had. I say this to you as a guardian, who would give his own life for yours. You mustn't treat this as-"
The old man's voice faded away, unable to speak what he thought to be too harsh for her, though Zelda was quick to finish for him, "What, as some stupid little game?"
"Princess-"
Zelda bit back, "I bet if I had said I'd gone to one of the castle's spirit callers to learn of Hyrule's fate, you'd listen to me."
Shrugging, Ruzoll admitted, "To be fair, that would lend some credibility to your endeavor. Still, some tale heard from a fortune teller or spirit caller would still look bad to the prying eyes of the outside world."
He turned to the others, "No offense."
"No prying here," Urbosa shrugged, "Since you've done us the courtesy of not wrangling us up like dogs, I suppose."
Revali's voice seethed, "Us?"
Almost inquisitively, Urbosa turned to the chains wrapped around the Rito's wrists, having been deemed too much of a flight risk, literally, by Ruzoll's men. She knew they were there, only feigning confusion to prod at the feathered man.
"Oh, how about that," she mused in surprise.
He growled, jerking his arms up and down in discomfort, "Stupid- They hurt!"
Zelda turned around, reaching out to his metal bonds with a shake of her head, carefully working them loose, "I'm sorry my people are treating you like this, Revali."
He snapped his beak, shooting a fierce glare toward the nearest soldier, "I'll make sure they remain alive while I-"
"Revali…," Zelda interrupted with a pleading tone, dropping her head regretfully.
He seemed to catch her begging him to quit resisting, if only to stop his continued restraining. Revali scoffed but otherwise remained quiet as Zelda did her best to loosen the bonds as best she could, holding back tears of both frustration and anguish.
"We'll get back to the castle and I'll get us out of this," she assured lightly.
Urbosa sighed, "My dearest, I don't think-"
"I will!" Zelda retorted with a bite to her tone, taking Urbosa off guard as she pulled away from Revali's relieved wrists, returning to her original form as they walked across the Hyrule plains, her head falling low, "I will…"
Frowning, Urbosa let the issue go, pained by the toll this was clearly having on the Princess. She rubbed her arm unsurely, taking in the sight of the ever-increasing panorama of Hyrule Kingdom coming into view as they further approached the town that rested at the foot of the castle. More and more Hylians were peppering the landscape, most of them with confused expressions at the strange arrival of a conglomeration of races being escorted along. Ruzoll did his best to quell any curiosity by simply nodding in the directions of any observers, though it did little to turn away their eyes.
"I'm a little bit nervous," Daruk finally admitted, "Boldon's not gonna be happy about this."
"Boldon?" questioned Urbosa.
Daruk shook his head, "He's the tour guide of Goron City. He's always preaching, 'Oi! You're representing our entire people with your mere presence!'. I hope I'm not turning anybody off by being surrounded by guards…"
"Well, at least you're not bound," Urbosa offered with a pithy tone, "They'd best be steering clear of the Rito as a whole with Revali's appearance."
Revali sneered, "Good. Less troubles in Tabantha."
Chuckling at the thought rising in her head, Urbosa replied in jest, hoping to lighten the mood, "When we get out of this, we'll stage something in Hyrule Town, perhaps. Have Revali stand over my bolognese sauce-d body as I lay dead in the streets. Might as well do him that honor."
Ruzoll turned his head over his shoulder to glance at the Champions, his droll eyes narrowing unenthusiastically, "Let's not cause a scene, please."
Urbosa shrugged, "Just saying…"
The commander cocked his head in Link's direction, "Keep an eye on her, too."
Link nodded in reply, his gait carrying him into the conglomeration of Champions to better orient himself between both Revali and Urbosa, the Gerudo woman laughing humorously at Ruzoll's ridiculous request, not to mention assertion that she might be a danger. Remaining wholly rigid in his posture, Link did his best to avoid the eyes of the others, his attention jolting as Mipha's hand took his arm, forcing his head to whip to the side.
She spoke up quietly, "What's to become of us?"
Easily, Link answered, "They're going to release you all in due time, just-"
"Not when we're done- I mean now," Mipha spoke in uncharacteristic forcefulness, "Poor Daruk is about to have a fit of tremors."
"He'll be fine," Link assured, "He's a Goron. He knows no harm will come to him."
"Does he?" Mipha challenged, earning her a peculiarly confused glance from Link.
He frowned, "Mipha, what's gotten into you? The Zora are just as mindful of their military as the Hylians are; you should understand better than anybody else."
"We understand discretion, even among duty," she explained in heated exchange.
Link stared at her, his voice lined with strain as he struggled to keep his words subdued, "I have nothing but duty! I wasn't born a prince or even a commoner. My mother was a knight, as my father was as well; I wasn't brought into this world, I was bred into it, like a dog. I have nothing but duty to the people for whom I was bred to serve."
"You have us," Mipha reminded, "Even excluding loose definitions- By the goddess, you and Daruk are brothers! I would give up all the gold in the world for my brother."
He shook his head begrudgingly, "That won't change things. I'm bound to my fate. Being a knight was the only thing I was ever good at. We're trained to ignore the deaths of our comrades- to move on. I watched my mother die in my arms, and not once did I shed a tear. I'm a far better soldier than I'd be anything else."
Mipha's brow furrowed in sorrow as Link's lips twisted, trying to hold back his own frustrations, "So don't tell me I have anything else."
Her face burned at his self-deprecation, so desperately wanting to prove to him how wrong he was, her voice appearing with a pleading timbre, "How can somebody as strong as you be so weak and subservient to this fate of yours?"
Link didn't reply as the two continued along within the circle of soldiers surrounding them. Ruzoll's head had been peering over his shoulder, having caught their discussion at his ear, and holding his tongue just long enough to finally feel a pang of guilt.
"Link, up here," he ordered with a paternal air, earning a jolting acknowledgement as Link's head turned toward him.
He nodded, "Yes sir."
The knight took a single stride forward before Mipha took his arm, requiring little strength to keep Link near as he came to a sudden halt, spinning around to find Mipha's eye ever-deepening as though she were lost. He matched her expression with one of confusion, unable to ascertain what it was she was wanting, almost begging, herself to say. Her lips trembled for but a moment before pulling inward in worry.
"I love you," she finally admitted in hasty speech, Link's eyes growing wide in surprise as her grip tightened around his arm.
"Link!" repeated Ruzoll impatiently.
The man's ears could not have heard him anyway.
Mipha's face furrowed, aswirl with determination forcing its way through her nerves, "If I can muster the strength to admit that, why can't you do the same?"
Link's wide eyes refused to pull away, lost in the shock of what had just been said, only broken by the sudden barking of Ruzoll, who's voice immediately shook the very air surrounding the troupe, "LINK!"
In an instant, Mipha's spell had broken, leaving Link spinning toward his commander, allowing Ruzoll to drop his head to stare at him with renewed seriousness, his voice reiterating, "Up here. Sir."
This time, as Link slowly strode away, Mipha allowed her grip to soften, watching Link evaporate from her grasp while he turned his head over his shoulder, taking another lingering glance toward her, his heart growing stagnant, unsure of what to do or even how to do it. Still, he remained in control of enough faculties to know that his commanding officer's word was of the utmost importance, leaving him to sway forward, his gait wholly unsteady as he pressed on.
Mipha clutched her hand against her chest, terrified that her action, made in the heat of the moment, would now have wrought trouble for the man whom she'd loved for years. While most of the Champions went on pretending not to have heard, Zelda's eyes found Mipha, watching her anguished expression with astonishment.
Amidst the shaking atmosphere surrounding the group, Link came to Ruzoll's side, the commander keeping his head up in a show of authority, his eyes winced as he glanced toward the mighty Hyrule Castle just above the silhouette of the nearby town.
"When we arrive, I want you to report to Dagan for your debriefing. You are then to return to your quarters. Understood?" Ruzoll instructed, keeping his head aloft, even as Link's eyes turned up to him in pleading, "I don't want any more trouble than what they will cause already. You'll remain there until I say."
Link's chest reverberated with a chorus of emotions, some wholly foreign to him, but he ultimately lowered his head, taking in a breath as a vision of Mipha flashed across his mind.
"Yes, sir."
Link listened to the cacophony of steps being taken by visitors and townspeople alike as he stared out the window of his childhood home, his brow sunken in regret while he took in what the day's events had brought. He wasn't able to clear the thought of Mipha's words from his mind; the sentiment she had wrought nearly haunting him in its all-encompassing pervasiveness.
He looked down at his journal, having grown in his knighthood to be the most reliable mirror into his own thoughts, reciting the words he had written there not moments earlier. They appeared so jumbled in his mind's bedraggled state, forcing him to speak those words aloud to himself if only to comprehend their meaning.
"Beyond that, I have another problem-"
He drew a sharp breath.
"I do believe I have fallen in love with her."
The skin at the back of his neck tingled with an intensity he hadn't felt even on during combat. He breath, so readied to prepare himself for those words, now shook with uncertainty, his mind lost on how foreign such a thing was. He didn't even look at women, not in that way, but that night the two of them had shared a swim, he-
He was nearly terrified. Frightened of the thought of sharing anything more than that swim with anybody. Did he love her in return, truly? Surely that would mean sharing responsibilities, sharing time, energy, effort- all the things the Royal Guard had required of him. He knew he was certainly attracted to her- such a rather unbecoming thing already. but it wasn't solely her lithe, toned body that took his attention; it was her determination and strength, hidden so skillfully beneath her aura of kindness. It was her gentleness, so well coupled with her ferocity when the situation called for it.
But her skin, so tender and cold. He could feel it as though he were back within those waters of the oasis all over again. It felt so pleasant now beneath his nervous fervor, almost calming him with its cool touch even with Mipha being gone.
That's right. She was gone.
Link's eyes jumped back up through his window, watching the same Hylians he'd sword to protect. whom he'd been born, bred, to protect.
Could he do the same for Mipha? The one person he had loved had died on his watch.
Could he protect her from himself? from his insecurities, from his duty to Hyrule Kingdom?
He released a shaking breath, shaking his head as he fell into his chair, running a hand across his face with exhaustion, not prepared for such a quandary. He'd never known how to love; not outside of his love of country, anyway. Were he to allow himself to submit to such a thing… to whom would his duty, his loyalty, be bound to?
Slowly reaching into his pocket, he ceased for a moment, staring once more at the line he had jotted down in his journal, before gradually sliding a separate pocketbook from his pocket than the one Ruzoll had taken, this one never meant for the eyes of anybody else. As Link flipped through the pages, he caught glimpses of the pages within, roughly drawn sketches, by his own hand, mostly of the same plants and animals that Zelda had dragged him around to find. but some were people he'd run into during his travels, most of them simply sketched from memory after the fact.
Near the end of the collection, where a sizable number of blank pages remained thereafter, Link's eyes fell upon a rough drawing he'd made of Mipha from that night. His eyes shook as his stare grew intense, following the strokes his pencil had once made, envisioning himself following those very same lines with his hands atop Mipha's own body, staring into those eyes of hers that wore all of the emotions that Link, himself, was too afraid to wield.
Was this love? this feeling that seemed to strangle him through his chest without a thing there to squeeze. He allowed his eyes to wander back up toward his journal once more, his mind awash with such ideas, but as they ebbed and flowed, the one constant in his mind was always Mipha. He didn't care about whatever mission, or the fate of the world beyond his own part of it.
But he cared about her. Might she become a part of that world?
Such a thought left him there, despondent; ill-equipped to challenge these emotions that flooded over him.